💵 A New Dollar in North Dakota

What's the Point of State Stablecoins? Plus, Meme Stock Mania is Back and Roundhill's New ETF Proves It

Author

Katie Perry
October 09, 2025

Welcome to Tuesday Thursday Saturday! Here, I share a snapshot of trending stories across business, tech, and culture, plus some updates from the daily financial news show I host. - KP

The Big Story: North Dakota’s Roughrider Coin Rides In

It’s not often that North Dakota makes fintech news, but here we are: the state is building its own dollar-backed digital coin called Roughrider, named for Teddy Roosevelt, who spent his formative years in the state during the late 19th century. 

The project is part experiment, part infrastructure upgrade, and part political statement. I wanted to know why the hell North Dakota (no offense) needed its own stablecoin, so I looked into it.

TR: Big stablecoin guy!

What exactly is North Dakota launching?

The Bank of North Dakota, the only state-owned bank in the country, plans to debut Roughrider Coin in 2026. It’s what’s known as a stablecoin, a word you’ve probably heard tossed around A LOT lately. Stablecoins are digital tokens that run on blockchain technology but keep a steady value instead of fluctuating like cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin.

Each Roughrider Coin will be pegged to the U.S. dollar, meaning one coin will always equal one dollar. That stability is achieved by holding actual cash or short-term U.S. Treasury bonds in reserve for every coin issued. It’s kind of like a digital gift card that’s always worth exactly one dollar and can be used anywhere that accepts it, and behind that card is a real dollar sitting safely in reserve.

Fiserv, the financial tech firm behind the system, already operates a platform called FIUSD that lets banks issue and transfer these tokens instantly. Mastercard plans to integrate the platform into its payment network, which would make it easier for banks and, eventually, merchants to use the coin.

Why is a state doing this?

North Dakota’s stated goal is to modernize its financial infrastructure. Right now, most bank-to-bank transfers still rely on slow, aging systems like ACH or wire transfers. The simple reason for this is that they run on old rails that batch transactions instead of settling them live, so speed simply isn’t built into the system. It’s sort of like why Amtrak trains are mechanically capable of going faster, but our infrastructure can’t handle it.

A blockchain (basically a shared, digital ledger that records transactions in real time) lets money move in seconds, not days. So Roughrider Coin is less about reinventing money and more about enabling it to move faster and more efficiently. 

There’s also the marketing angle, because come on, there ALWAYS is one. This is a great branding opportunity for North Dakota. By launching one of the first state-backed digital dollars, North Dakota positions itself as an innovator in finance and technology. In a competitive landscape for attracting businesses and tech talent, that matters. Especially when so much innovation in the U.S. is popping up in the West, as I wrote about the other week.

And there’s a subtle financial angle, too: the dollars sitting in reserve can earn interest in short-term Treasuries. That yield can help fund the program or offset costs, turning a piece of financial plumbing into a modest source of revenue.

How does this actually work?

First, the state has to authorize it legally. In this case, the North Dakota Industrial Commission, which oversees the state bank, approved the development earlier this month. 

Next comes the technical build-out: selecting the blockchain, writing the token’s code, and creating the systems that allow banks to issue and redeem tokens for real cash. A company called zerohash just raised an additional $104 million from leading financial institutions to provide this as a white label service to banks and other institutions.

The whole thing only works if people trust it. That means regular audits and public disclosure of the dollars backing each coin. The newly passed GENIUS Act, a federal law establishing national standards for stablecoins, requires issuers to report their reserves and undergo independent audits. That’s the accountability piece.

At first, Roughrider Coin will be used mainly between banks and credit unions, which is somewhat of an invisible upgrade to how money moves inside the financial system. Over time, Fiserv has said it could expand to merchant payments, payroll, and even international transfers.

Does this give more power to the states?

The balance of power between states and the federal government has always been a tenuous narrative in American history. Technically, Roughrider Coin doesn’t change who controls the U.S. dollar. States can’t print their own national currency. But it does give them a new way to participate in, and at least partially control, the infrastructure that moves dollars around.

In that sense, yes, it slightly shifts influence toward the states. If North Dakota and Wyoming can prove that state-managed digital dollars work faster, safer, and cheaper than traditional rails, other states could follow. Over time, that might weaken the federal government’s monopoly on building and maintaining the payments system, even though the currency itself remains federal.

It’s a classic American tension: local experimentation versus centralized control. Washington sets the rules, but states keep pushing at the edges. The GENIUS Act is Congress’s attempt to balance both by letting states innovate while ensuring those experiments don’t turn into fifty incompatible versions of the dollar.

How could this affect regular people?

For now, most North Dakotans won’t notice anything. They won’t see Roughrider Coin in your digital wallet or use it at the grocery store. But behind the scenes, faster payment rails could quietly change everyday banking.

Payroll could land instantly instead of “in one to two business days.” Refunds could show up within minutes. Businesses could move money between accounts more quickly, freeing up cash flow. And if the system expands to consumers, international remittances or peer-to-peer payments could become cheaper and faster.

The impact will be gradual, but real. Most people won’t call it “blockchain.” They’ll just say, “My money got here faster.”

What are the risks?

Skeptics see a few, starting with fragmentation. If every state launches its own stablecoin, interoperability could get messy. You could end up with a patchwork of digital dollars that don’t play well together.

Second, security. Even with tight controls, software can fail or get hacked. A bug or exploit could undermine confidence overnight.

Finally, there’s the privacy issue. Unlike cash, digital transactions leave a trail. People worry that government-issued digital money could make it easier to track how they spend, even if that’s not the intent.

Supporters argue that those concerns are exactly why state-backed tokens are preferable to private ones. They’re subject to laws, audits, and democratic oversight. If a private crypto issuer mishandles funds, you tweet angrily. If a state does, you call your representative.

What happens if every state does this?

In a perfect world, each state’s stablecoin would follow identical rules, meaning they’d have the same reserve standards, same auditing, same tech backbone. This setup would allow the tokens to interact seamlessly, creating a network of digital dollars where money moves as easily as data across state lines.

The less perfect version looks like the 1800s, when every state had its own banknotes and no one knew which ones to trust. The outcome will depend on how tightly states coordinate with Washington and each other.

Either way, something is shifting. A small state best known for oil rigs and open plains is quietly testing the next chapter of American finance. The Roughrider Coin might never show up in your pocket, but it’s part of a much bigger question about who gets to define the future of money, and how fast it should move.

Daily Rip Live: Taste Testing Starbucks’ Protein-Infused Coffee and Josh Allen is the New Face of Pistachios

Protein-infused cold brew. Never again.

Every weekday, Shay Boloor and I co-host a morning markets show for Stocktwits called The Daily Rip Live. On Wednesday, as promised, I taste-tested Starbucks’ new protein-infused coffee, and it was disgusting. I also shared some tea from my coworking space.

⇢ 1:30 | What is going on in Colorado because this season of ‘Love Is Blind’ on Netflix is bonkers $NFLX ( ▲ 1.95% )  

⇢ 2:19 | TASTE TEST: Starbucks cold brew with banana protein 🤢 Shorting $SBUX ( ▼ 1.54% )  

⇢ 3:30 | IBM teams up with Anthropic, just two days after Accenture teams up with them. Takeaway: It’s good to be doing enterprise sales at Anthropic. $IBM ( ▼ 1.5% )  $ACN ( ▲ 0.7% )  

⇢ 9:00 | Big Short Investor asks, “Is the U.S. economy becoming too reliant on AI?”

⇢ 12:08 | Tesla is cutting prices for Model Y/3, stock fell on the news $TSLA ( ▲ 1.29% )  

⇢ 18:06 | Gold rally continues $GLD ( ▲ 1.65% )  

⇢ 22:00 | Roundhill launches retail investor ETF with ticker $MEME ( 0.0% )  

⇢ 27:38 | Jensen Huang stops by CNBC to flex compute demand; Nvidia chips are becoming their own asset class $NVDA ( ▲ 2.2% )  

⇢ 33:35 | Verizon and its new CEO team up with AST Spacemobile $ASTS ( ▲ 8.63% )  $VZ ( ▼ 0.19% )  

⇢ 40:30 | Nike is losing its luster, but New Balance is on a tear, also Josh Allen is getting his bag as the face of pistachios $NKE ( ▲ 0.26% ) GO BILLS!

⇢ 41:05 | Two guys at my coworking space get into a physical altercation 🍵

Now, Here’s a Chart

It’s still early days for crypto, and the U.S. stock market is still Americans’ favorite place to invest, per new Bankrate data via Statista.

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Tuesday Thursday Saturday is written by Katie Perry, owner of Ursa Major Media, which provides fractional marketing services and strategy in software, tech, consumer products, professional services, and other industries. She is also the co-host of Stocktwits’ Daily Rip Live show.

Disclaimer: The contents here reflect recaps and summaries of pre-reported or published data, news, and trends. I have cited sources and context for the information provided to the best of my ability. The purpose of the newsletter is to inform and educate on larger trends shaping business and culture — this is NOT investment advice. As an investor, you should always do your own research before making any decisions about your money or your portfolio.